The present invention relates to a method for attracting honey bee parasitic mites to an object or area, involving treating the object or area with a composition containing a honey bee parasitic mites attracting effective amount of at least one compound selected from butyric acid, isobutyric acid, or mixtures thereof, and optionally a carrier or carrier material.
Varroa mites are obligate parasites of honey bee (Apis mellifera) adults and brood. The mites feed throughout their life cycle on the hemolymph of bees (thus weakening bees), and the mites vector a large number of viruses. This interaction likely contributes significantly to colony collapse disorder (CCD), a major source of loss to apiculture operations. Adult female mites use adult bees as phoretic hosts to move around the colony, but must acquire a specific-age bee larva to successfully reproduce. During host acquisition (cell invasion), the female mite detects an appropriately aged larval host (an older fifth instar larva near capping) and moves off the phoretic host into the larval host cell. The mite is then capped (enclosed) in the cell with the bee larva by worker bees and reproduces while its host develops through pupation into an adult bee. Female mites manage to successfully locate an appropriate larval host in a complex hive environment filled with cues from similar but age-inappropriate younger bee larvae.
Every European honeybee colony in the United States, and in most other countries in the world, is infested with Varroa mites to some degree. The apiculture industry in the US accounts for more than $12 billion/year in pollination services alone. The Varroa mite is considered the most critical pest to honeybee health and consequently pollination services rendered by beekeepers. Migratory beekeepers assume that 30% of all hives will die during annual moves to pollinate crops across the US and consider the Varroa mite to be a significant cause of die off. The industry is desperate for new effective strategies to control the mite that do not require the use of pesticides, primarily because mites develop resistance rapidly and beekeepers realize that bees also suffer from the effects of miticides.
Reducing the mortality associated with the Varroa mite and increasing the health of honeybees by controlling this parasite will result in many millions of dollars in savings to beekeepers alone. Additionally, pollination services will be increased because the numbers of colonies available to pollinate will be increased and healthy bees are more effective in pollination than weakened bees. For example, honeybees are obligate pollinators for almonds and one of the limiting factors for almond production in California is the availability of bees to pollinate. Effectively controlling Varroa mite will therefore have significant impacts on crop production throughout the US and other countries.
Thus alternatives to chemical pesticides are needed.
Herein we describe two chemicals (butyric acid and isobutyric acid) that surprisingly act as attractants to phoretic Varroa mites.